I would definitely place it near the end, and after any pedals that need to "track" the signal, such as envelope filters, pitch shifters and digital delays....

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If you place it first in the chain, the trem effect might not be as pronounced. You still hear the pulses, but you would probably hear how it interacts with the downstream effects more. Which, if that's what you're going for, might be the thing. That said, it will be much more authentic and natural sounding if you place it in an effects loop (or after the preamp section of your setup, a la dirt pedals etc.).

I place it after everything else but my delay and that gives me the option to have a clean or distorted or effected trem sound.

I'd put it after dirt and modulation, but before delay or reverb pedals. That way, you can delay or 'verb up the tremolo which is always fun... Effects loop is good advice, but I've gone from using mine in one to not and it's sounds almost exactly the same to me.

For me? After the first stage of reverb and maybe a short delay/hold, before the main delay section and final reverb.

For you? Depends. It should be one of the last few effects in the rig that isn't repetition based like a delay or a reverb, at the very least, and from there, you can toy. I love the sound of a good trem ripping through a good spring reverb, but that's my affinity for a lot of early 60s guitar tones. Also, when I use trem, I usually want it to be noticed and reverb has a way of "covering" trems, IMO. But toy. Toy a lot.

I keep mine after most of my delays right now. Sometimes I like to get a nice wall of delay and then trem it. But for the most part i dont use the trem in conjunction with a lot of delay. I may have to move it up before the delays to see how it sounds.

Originally posted by chriscrob I keep mine after most of my delays right now. Sometimes I like to get a nice wall of delay and then trem it. But for the most part i dont use the trem in conjunction with a lot of delay. I may have to move it up before the delays to see how it sounds.

I'm a huge fan of tremolo before the delay. I can handle Tremolos set to a triangle LFo afterward, but never square. It's just to distinctly choppy.

It's also a blast to run two Trems in series, slightly off from each other. You can get some very laptop-ish sounds out of it.

One of my dream pedals is a tremolo that allows you to select certain frequencies to apply the Tremolo, while send the rest thru straight. I do this now by splitting the signal and using an EQ. Add on a Send Rate output and it would be THE Tremolo!

Now while we're on the subject of Tremolo - can someone please answer this question for me? WHY DO SO FEW TREMOLO PEDALS HAVE TAP TEMPO!? I think this is so strange. Granted, Tremolo became popular as an effect built into amps, where tap tempo wasn't really an option, but for a Tremolo stompbox it really makes no sense.

Originally posted by love_forever Now while we're on the subject of Tremolo - can someone please answer this question for me? WHY DO SO FEW TREMOLO PEDALS HAVE TAP TEMPO!? I think this is so strange. Granted, Tremolo became popular as an effect built into amps, where tap tempo wasn't really an option, but for a Tremolo stompbox it really makes no sense.

Colin, aka the guy behind experimentalistsanonymous, explained it once in an old post. You could probably find it by doing a little searching, but basically, this is the gist:

With a tap tempo delay, well, say you tap it in to be around a half second, right? Every time you hit a string, make a noise, it comes back in a half second. That all makes sense, right? With a trem, however, it isn't controlled by your playing. It just does what it does and keeps going. The problem here is that it doesn't "reset," so the tap tempo ends up pointless. People are not metronomes... Playing speeds up or slows down a little. And combine that with the fact that if you are not ABSOLUTELY PERFECT in tapping out the time and, well, you have a problem. The trem will go out of time with your playing.

In my hungover badly written way, what I'm trying to say is that delay is a pedal that will play to you some. Trem, well, doesn't. You have to play to it.

Originally posted by grayson I would definitely place it near the end, and after any pedals that need to "track" the signal, such as envelope filters, pitch shifters and digital delays....

I've been using my trem early on in the chain right after dirt and right in front of my Tube Zipper.

I love how the Envelope on the Zipper gets triggered by every beat of the Trem. Combine that with a foot controllable speed on the trem and adding delays and reverb afterwards to taste and you get some great freaky tones.